Worse than we thought...

Another grave of female foetuses Chander Parkash Tribune News Service

Patran, August 10 Even as the people of this town were still reeling under shock after a mass grave of unborn daughters was detected in a pit situated in the vicinity of local Sahib Hospital yesterday, the district health authorities today identified another pit, near the earlier one, in which about 200 to 300 female foetuses were suspected to be buried. The digging of the second

pit would start tomorrow morning.

Official sources said that the district health authorities had also identified about 20 ultrasound centres in Haryana, which had been carrying out pre-natal sex determination tests and subsequently sending a significant number of pregnant women to Sahib Hospital for illegal abortions of female foetuses.

Though the district administration and health authorities were tight lipped about their plans on how to deal with these ultrasound centres, sources revealed that an effective operation would be launched jointly by the Punjab and Haryana Police departments shortly to nab the culprits, who had been supplying customers to Sahib hospital for illegal abortions of female fetuses. These centres were charging Rs 8,000 to Rs 10,000 from their customers for carrying out pre-natal sex determination tests.

These ultrasound centres, which were supplying the customers to Sahib hospital, run by a quack couple, identified as Pritam Singh and his wife Amarjit Kaur, had been running in Tohana, Kaithal, Jakhal, Ambala, Raipur Rani and Nariangarh areas of the Haryana. Some other ultrasound centres, located in various towns of Patiala and Sangrur districts, were also identified, which too had been sending pregnant women with female fetuses to Sahib Hospital, located on Patran-Patiala main road, for illegal abortions.

Dr V. S. Mohi, Civil surgeon, Patiala, said that three different teams of the Health Department, along with the officials of other departments, would start digging of the second pit tomorrow.

He had also sought explanation from Dr I. C. Taneja, Senior Medical Officer, Civil Hospital, Patran, asking him to explain the reasons that why he (Dr Taneja) could not detect the illegal abortions taking place in the Sahib hospital for the past one year or so. He added that detection of one more grave of female foetuses had also embarrassed the district health authorities also.

Mr Munish Kumar, SDM, Patran, who had been coordinating the operation and Dr Mohi said that the health authorities had constituted three teams for this operation. Ambulances would also be pressed into service while digging up the pit. Before the start of digging, the toxic gases from that pit, which was sealed about one year back, would be removed. Mr Kumar said that they might face some problems while digging out the pit as some sewerage lines were passing over that pit. He added that utmost care would be taken during the digging operation so that no untoward incident could take place.

Dr Mohi said that it also came into his notice that the accused couple had also been using acid in the pit after burying the foetuses and other related material in the pit following illegal abortions to speed up their decomposition.

This is a disgusting act that i am ashamed to say is still being practised. I dnt understand y people would want to kill their own child based on it sex? Guruji said " girls are the greatest jewels. They give birth to the greatest kings!" Were also equal in status to men. Our religion is the only religion that states that. How can anyone cal them selve worthy of being human or look at themselves in the mirror knowing they murdered a small child. God doesnt throw childen down into this world and give themto anyone. COuples are crying to have a baby these days. People who commit these kind of selfish acts show their thanks by throwing His gift of life (a small precious child) away . God bless their souls

What are the root causes of people doing this? It cant be just favoratism for boys, it must be something deeper in the pyche of the people of punjab.

Heres my analysis

1) punjab being constantly at war or conflict, males are required in the army. Females get in the way of front line fighting and become victimised through rape when other side comes over.

2) Lack of oppertunities for females in India to progress in society in work

3)When females do something wrong as in have sexual relations outside marriage its a slur on the families honour and respect.

These are just my thoughts, there could be many more to identify but I believe it is this thinking and issues underneath these disgraceful acts of female infantocide that contribute to it. We need to find solutions so that females are self-respectul and able to hold their own in Indian/punjabi society without being victimised

its also majorly issues of dowry for more poor families - birth of girls = paying for dowry in india which can be more than the person's lifetime collection of funds. Also, honour is huge, and the fact that sons will more likely take care of the parents after and carry on their blood, etc., as the girl will marry away into another family anyway (but its getting waaaay too much now, it's out of hand, blowinggg way out of the proportion we can even HANDLE, we are losing TOO MANY GIRLS, imagine, even losing ONE GIRL, gift from God, symbol of strength , power, and purity, etc., -- is just awful... we're losing millions of girls , millions of possible bhagats and mothers of warriors... waheguruu

I know where the problem is. Look at the Sikh matrimonials in any Punjabi newspaper. If we stop accepting dowry and stop this cancer of caste system in India, we would not have this problem. The laws of India do not allow opportunities for women and protect their rights as individuals. This also goes for children. What bothers me is why do these people carry the name Singh and Kaur, wear turbans and bring Sikhi the bad name. Why don't they shave their fu@#$ heads and beards off and do this garbage of cheating, and murdering humans. Oh! it makes me so mad. Thank you for posting.